This postcard partially solves a mystery of two other postcards that are attached
below. In the process of scanning the two dozen or so postcards dated 1910
through 1918 from various Erickson family members I have learned a lot about
the lives of these folk. They loved to write postcards is one thing and fortunate
enough many survived the one hundred and seventeen years since they were
penny posted across the country.
Some are in Swedish and those await a proper translator. This postcard by my
uncle, Helmer Erick Alof Erickson was written to his younger brother, my
grandfather Frank Gustaf Severin (Erssson-Eriksson) Erickson while he was living out in California
in 1911.
Frank was eighteen years old when he headed west in 1910 and lived off and
on for the next many years in Daly City California, Phoenix, Arizona, Miles City,
Montana and multiple towns in Oregon. At twenty five years old Frank would
end up joining the American Expeditionary Force in 1917 while he was living
in La Grande, Oregon along with his brother Ernest Julius Erickson. The two
had been Oregon railroad deputies at the outbreak of the war in Europe. Both
would serve in France in 1918.
Amazing a card could be sent with the minimal address you see below and
actually get to the person. Daly City at the time was tiny and had one post
office most likely, so there is that possibility. Daly City is just south of San
Francisco. I have been there many times and never realized till a few years
ago Frank had lived there. I would love to know what Frank was doing out here in
Northern California in 1911.
You can see the embossed "Erickson Studio" on the front right from Helmer's
photographic studio in Wilton, ND. Two of Frank's boxer postcards are attached
below that he had mailed home to North Dakota. They are referred to in Helmer's
writing.
Here is the transcription of the postcard sent to Frank Erickson in Daly City,
California and mailed by Helmer Erickson from Wilton, North Dakota in March
of 1911:
Dear Brother,
Received both of your cards. Say! are you a pugilist
now? ha ha. Must be nice and warm down there. I'll bet
you could not go outside here without your shirt on.
How do you like California? Is it a large city? How is
business doing there? I am in business for myself now.
Have been since last summer. I have a gallery & a camera
outfit that cost me $120. I intended to go to Sweden this
summer but I don't know if I can.
Write again soon, send postcards of yourself and Daly City.
Helmer
Many thanks to my cousin Mark Henninger of Bismarck, North Dakota
for helping me with the Family Restoration Photograph Project, most especially
with the transcribing of the Ernest Julius Erickson diaries and the multiple family
postcards.
He was kind enough to go through the archives of his mom Zena had kept of
the family photographs going back to the late 1800s in Sweden.
